PTCL is Transforming Its Network with FTTC and FTTH Throughout Pakistan: CEO

PTCL, the largest broadband internet service provider in the country, is doing massive upgradation that will ultimately transform the company and the broadband experience it offers to hundreds of thousands of customers, revealed Dr. Daniel Ritz, CEO of PTCL, in an exclusive interview with ProPakistani.

Dr. Ritz was confident that this new investments in network transformation project of over Rs. 27 Billion in two and half years will bring the long-due upgradation in PTCL exchanges and last mile access network.

“We are upgrading our network with future-proof technology and replacing the under-ground cable with fiber and rehabilitating or laying new copper network as and where required “, he explained.

In the Network transformation project, some 100 exchanges — that serve about 50% of customer base — have been selected for up-gradation.

For a common man’s understanding, this up-gradation will mean higher speeds and reliable internet service– up to 100Mbps for home users.

“We are reducing loop lengths, replacing old copper media with fiber till the multi-service access gateways (MSAGs), and then changing the copper with new high capacity copper or even with fiber — when there’s extremely high-speed demand– for renewed and enhanced end-to-end broadband service”, said Dr. Daniel Ritz.

After transformation, FTTC (Fibre to the Curb) MSAGs will be deployed with fiber connectivity from the exchanges and they will be available with-in 1 to 1.5 KM of every home user.

Media of MSAGs till the end customer will be either upgraded to copper or fiber to the home (FTTH), depending on demand in the area.

After transformation, the speeds that customers can expect will be:

FTTH customers: 50Mbps and 100 Mbps

Copper Customer: 8-20Mbps

Once the network upgradation is completed, PTCL will be offering high speed triple play package at competitive pricing.

New packages offered are:

CEO PTCL told me that around 65% of company’s overall revenue comes from consumer segment and with this transformation, while its too early to evaluate as its been only three months since the upgraded network is live, the exchanges that were upgraded witnessed up to 15% growth in revenue.

“Not only this, the customer complaints reduced by 30% for the exchanges that have been upgraded”. Dr. Ritz claimed.

This essentially means that PTCL will be placed a lot better to offer premium broadband services in many of cities across the country, with better experience and lesser user complaints.

Scale of Up-Gradation is Massive

“This is an extensive project where thousands of KMs are to be upgraded with new media and hundreds of thousands of pairs are to be re-touched by someone manually”, explained the CEO while mentioning that this network transformation project will be completed in 2019.

Dr. Ritz also mentioned about how “Right of Way” takes a lot of time and becomes a major challenge in the entire upgradation process.

Overall Brand Placement is Being Uplifted

Alongside infrastructure upgrade, Dr. Daniel Ritz and his team are also closely working on overall perception building of PTCL. PTCL has inducted over 300 fresh graduates all across Pakistan in 2017 from top universities under the PTCL Summit Program.

He agreed that the company had been faring poorly in terms of customers feedback but assured that work is being done to alleviate the issue step by step.

Renovation of customer support touch points, intense training of field staff, and turn around time for complaint resolution are being given a lot of attention to offer better experience to customers.

Dr. Daniel Ritz agreed service quality had a lot to do with bad customer perception, but said that with improved and rehabilitated infrastructure, the complaints will lessen which will ultimately grow the trust that customers have on PTCL.

He said that there is already a 30% drop in customers complaints in areas where exchanges have been upgraded. Additionally, they have witnessed growth in customer acquisitions and churn has reduced, indicating that revamped network will help company lift its overall brand image by a good margin.

Future Prospects

Daniel Ritz is clear that PTCL’s future prospects are very promising.

With revamped broadband network, he thinks that company will not only be able to increase its customer base but due to its wide-stretched network across hundreds of cities, PTCL has all the potential to become the de facto choice for fixed broadband internet for millions of customers.

Impossible dear, according to your bill, services tax are Rs.49. How possible? There is 19.50% service tax for each service you use. your broadband charges should be 19.50*1775/100=346.125 plus landline 19.50*250/100=48.75 so 346.125 + 48.75 = 394.875 total service taxes. Total bill should be 250 + 1775 + 394.875(Service tax) = Rs.2419.875 + 222 (W.H tax) = 2641.875

My bill 2660 with 4MB unlimited. No way this is going to happen with 10MB. Do you have unlimited package? They really have not told you the 3 different kinds of taxes that would apply. I just disconnected my services just because of billing and poor customer support.

My Home Broadband No is 021-32581306, every month i pay Rs. 4200/=, monthly BB Charges 3025 and 8MB Package, this is very high rate, I am waiting for Transormation package or GPON Service. I will upgrade service 10 MBPS only Rs.2450. Karachi people also paying huge amount to PTCL, and service tax.

It will be highly appreciated if you please provide tools to your lineman also. I noticed a lot of times that they don’t have tools and ask for these items when they visit home or office. They said that PTCL do not provide them such tools which they need.

If Ptcl succcedes in transformation of copper to fiber then Noone can beat ptcl bcz they have the largest infrastructure of home and business users. Plus their CR needs to be trained to handle consumer problems.

I would say, it’s finally happening. I had hoped they’d consider total overhaul of their infrastructure, and that was back in 2010. 7 Years have passed, when finally we have some ‘news’. Hopefully it’ll help improve the quality issues with current Copper wires. And i sincerely hope Rains would stop disrupting the phoneline/internet services (which was a very common occurrence with Copper cabinets).

I think diagram showed above is current technology that ptcl possess , actual transformation will happened when ptcl starts GPON if ptcl transform its self to GPON then some thing better can happened , But I clearly mention one thing after converting into GPON ptcl existing landline user will be affected reason is that Current PSTN technology is active and GPON is Passive means current landline works without eletricity and in GPON Fixed Land Line one should have electricity ….

Connection: 12MB PTCL on Copper Wire.
Top DL Speed: 1.6 MBPS
Connection is non stable i have to restart it when its attainable but its really miracle its working fine here & You can’t compare Unlimited With limited cap so there IS no Comparison once PTCL has upgraded.

Trust me you wouldn’t want to pay 5000 To Zong 4G for 100GB Cap.
Once its upgraded i am going for 100 MBPS for sure!

Assalamoalikum.
Mirza Saab, yes my exchange got updated in June. New packages launched in July / August.
D/L speed hovers around 1.9-2.2 Mbps. Upload is same 1Mb.
Yes I have option to upgrade to VDsl with 50/100 Mbps. But I guess I don’t need it for now.
You’re dead right about usage. My bill showed 266 GB usage but trust me I used far more than that.
Apart from torrents, I am a user of Netflix 4K. Looks amazing on a 4K TV. But consumes a lot of data that I don’t worry about.
We have 7/8 devices at home accessing internet plus 2 TV sets accessing Netflix and YouTube.
I believe I used something like 500 GB last month.
I also watch matches online in HD.
Haven’t switched on my smart tv in a month.
I must say I am pretty happy and satisfied.

W Alikum Sallam Rao Zahid Bhai,
I wish i could say the same but because our area (Gujrat) isn’t that advance i guess i will have to wait for maybe a few months but i am sure they will do it.

And i know i because i have been monitoring it closely they don’t care about data and also once they have upgraded in my area i am NOT going under 100 MBPS That’s for sure.

I have got 3 x 4 TB Drives and they are only for 1080p Bluray movies & TV Shows Pretty much 20% of them is already full.
Thank you for joining the discussion its really great to come across good people :)
Even that FTTH was trying to prove his point so :)

For me it’s unlimited as I am not at home during these hours and I’ve never run out of the cap. My cap keeps adding to next month. And i giveaway my added GBs to my friends. And the beauty of FTTH is that I never have to restart my ONT (or router for you) due to reliable smooth and stable internet.

Getting interesting now. ??
Still I have no limitations and you do. My speed is 20 and yours is 7. Well I must accept that sometimes I have to restart modem (not router though!!!, they are not the same) but that “sometimes” is probably once a week or so.

Mine speed is stable too and smooth as well.

Just because you’re not at home from 8-20 doesn’t mean others aren’t as well. 60 GB – phusss- my kids will eat that in 15 days watching Netflix kids in 4K and YouTube.

Fact is that mine is still 20Mbps, it’s unlimited round the clock and I don’t have to keep a check on data used in peak hours.

I do agree they are providing good service but the thing is they are new in competition and PTCL is OLD and have a super strong Network no doubt they suck at their best and no one can beat them in that.

But on the other hand they are the Mother Broadband company here in Pakistan i really liked this post because our country is in urgent need of upgradation of Technology.

Can you not see the Impact on everyone after the introduction of 3G & 4G?

And YES i have to restart PTCL Modem because its Line Parameters are weak and needs a restart to get back to Top Speed but when its working its working great…..

You know what PTCL dug roads, parks and foot paths my area in Gulstan e Sajjad in Hyderabad for some upgradation and never repaired it. Such an irresponsible and anti environmental act. But nobody will talk on this.

Bro, Any update from Lahore? GULSHAN-E-RAVI exchange
I am already paying for VDSL 12Mbps which is 5500 rupee more than a year now and i am tired of paying that much.
BTW my DSL guy told me a month ago that previously they didn’t install VDSL card but now, they did installed it.
Should i consider it as a GO for Transform Package?

And this is happening ,
Believe me or not its really happening and its really fast. They are upgrading each and every pol / connection boxes .underground cabling is already completed. I asked from the exchange head and he told me that the whole area is going to upgrade on fiber optic connectivity. I can see PTCL vans loaded with equipment and cables in my area (Shadbagh , Lahore – old and congested area ).
I am already PTCL customer (4 MB connection). In punjab they have recently applied tax so its now cost me 2600 aprox .
I am very excited to see this new change and pretty sure that soon we will be able to get high speed connectivity .

I used Ptcl for over 10 Years & recently i started using Crybernet 10 Mbps Upload & Download speed for only RS 2400 / Month. The main problem i was facing with ptcl was the upload speed. According to their companys Policy they dont give Upload Speed more than 1 Mbps.

Brand placement cannot be uplifted without better service. PTCL is failed to replace even old DBs where complaints are very high while making claims of replacing the whole infrastructure. They will not do anything better as they cannot compete with wireless. Mobile companies are already offering up to 50 Mbps on 4G.

This is incredible! Keep it up PTCL! The only internet that works in the remote areas of Lahore and Multan. How does one apply for this? I live in Bahria LHR and DHA LHR — paying about 6000 PKR per month for just 12 Mbps net.

I wish to stay positive and believe what they are planning but in past they failed to fulfill all thier comitments, i wish someone give me PTCL CEO’s email address, i want to tell him ground relaities, not only their network is obseleted, their DEs are obseleted also rest of field staff, they need major shuffle in man power before investing in infrastructure, otherwise all their investments will go vain like before

I write this comment as a British-Pakistani who has recently been and observed the state of events and current state of affairs in Pakistan.
Unfortunately, there are several issues I have with this plan of action coming at this time. It comes at times where we have other countries internet and connectivity systems very highly developed and our systems being left very far behind. I agree with the many people who, in this very thread, say that there are advancements coming shortly to the 5G market, bringing a new era of connectivity to users which I’m sure Pakistan will jump on once available, much like telecommunications providers did with 4G. With that being said, wireless technologies are never going to be able to overtake wired technologies and this remains to be the case in most developed countries with more advanced telecommunications infrastructure.
Despite all of this, one problem I can already see PTCL having is a similar problem we have in the UK – the number of exchanges (or MSAGs). These often cause a bottleneck in the system and this is something which we are still trying to overcome in the UK in that that MSAG is serving a certain number of individuals; if individuals usage increases suddenly beyond their “expectation” has that MSAG got enough capacity to handle all users on that MSAG at their maximum or peak limits of say 50Mbps each? In the UK this is something which does not happen because although we are offered 80Mbps, it is very rarely going to be the case that every house can get 80Mbps and even more rare that every user on that exchange will be using 80Mbps for a long period of time. As such, exchanges aren’t fed that amount to handle such volume. As you apply more and more volume on one MSAG, other users suffer due to a handful of users. In order to overcome this, certain companies in the UK have had to invest millions into infrastructure developments, but that obviously comes at a cost to the end-customer and therefore plays a role in low adoption.
I am not by any means discouraging the idea and actually think it’s high time we had this implementation going in, however, with other providers such as Storm and Optix, aren’t PTCL a little late to the party? Also, I’d be interested to see how PTCL overcome some of the issues we face here and certainly are being faced by current PTCL users in PK at the moment. Any feedback on my thoughts are welcome inshAllah.